Trading Cards: The Jamboree Craze that Sent Scouts on a Wild Chase Across The Summit

Scouts looked high and low, near and far across the Summit. They asked Scoutmasters, staff, and friends to help them on their journey. They just HAD to find all 101 Jamboree trading cards.

At the National Jamboree, trading cards became all the rage. Upon arrival, each Scout at the Jamboree received 13 packs of WP Trading Cards, in hopes that the Scouts would try to trade cards and get all one hundred in the numbered set. There would be many duplicates in each set, so trading was necessary to gain a full set! These cards depict famous Scouters, like Mike Rowe and John F. Kennedy, along with historical figures who were critical to the Scouting movement, like William D. Boyce, E. Urner Goodman, and Baden-Powell.

Unlike patch-trading, card trading at Jamboree is a one-for-one system. Since all participants receive the same amount of cards, they all start at the same point. This system makes trading easy and even more desirable for everyone.

Jamboree-goers had fun trading with other participants, but the fun did not end there. A special 101st card was available to find, once a Scout or Venturer completed their set of 100 cards.

This 101st card was very rare and very difficult to find. Scouts would search all over, looking for clues and asking anyone who even resembled a Scout leader if they knew where to find it. Clues could be found around the camp or on the Jamboree app, hinting where Scouts should go or who they should talk to. However, they were often vague and left Scouts searching everywhere. Parents at home who heard of the craze were even texting their children to help them get hints and figure out what all the fuss was all about.

“It’s all random clues,” says Joey Ament, 14, a Star Scout from Jamboree Troop 2324 of the Three Harbors Council in Wisconsin, in an interview with Bryan on Scouting. “It’s a wild goose chase, basically.”

However, at the end of that wild goose chase, there was a worthy award. Participants who collected all 101 cards would receive a free 2017 Jamboree Linerlock knife.

The Goal and the Journey

Though the goal is that pocket knife, Joey and his troopmate Andrew Grebe, a 14-year-old Life Scout, say they’ve enjoyed the journey to get there.

“At the beginning, a lot of people in our troop opened them at the same time,” Andrew says. “It was a big rush of everybody trading them, which was fun. I like the fact that you can trade them one for one. There’s no super rarity to each card, besides the 101st. It’s not like patch trading where you might trade a set for two sets. And there’s a goal to it at the end.”

Trading cards pretty much required kids to go out of their troop, their friend groups, and their comfort zone to find the cards they needed. Not only did the card craze have a sweet reward at the end, it also allowed Scouts to get to know other people outside of their troops and form new friendships they otherwise wouldn’t have.

That’s part of the magic of Jamboree, building relationships and finding friends is just about as easy as trading a card.

studies Public Relations at Brigham Young University and is a marketing specialist at the Utah National Parks Council. She is an avid hiker and enjoys being outdoors. Growing up in the mountainous regions of Colorado and Virginia enabled her to follow these passions. After moving to Utah to attend college, she has spent her time fostering both a career in Communications and a love for Utah's National Parks.

One comment

My son has never received his knife. He said they had run out at the Jamboree and they took his name and address to send him one. But he still hasn’t received it. Do you know who was running this program so I can contact them?